Questions & Answers

Thank you for sharing your stories ladies. I can only hope my body can do a vaginal birth and if I do tear it's minimal...that is my biggest fear is tearing!! But many women do and by the sounds of it, the pain is manageable, which is a relief! 3.5 weeks til my due date!!!!

I had an episiotomy and tore on top of that with my 1st and had over 30 stitches, his was hard to sit or stand but I used the pads with ice pack in them and tucks pads and they have spray they can give you, my 2nd wasnt as bad but I had 12 stiches ...my 3rd they did the perineal massage and I had no tearing at all just a lil sore after...but I would rather have them natural than a c-section I had a c-sec with my 4th baby and it was horrible recovery is so much easier with a vaginal birth in my experience, I am trying a VBAC this time. :)

And I think its different with how much pain you feel when you have the epidural. Some lades feel it a little bit or no pain at all and Ive heard it doesn't work sometimes. For me I felt nothing but I did feel when I tore. but only for a second.

I had a First degree internal tear. I got stitches and ice kept on it for most the day. They will give you a bottle to spray yourself down there with warm water every time you go to the bathroom. Its eases the pain alot and it will feel so good.After my epidural wore off I got percocet, its will really help you recover and get some rest. The pain is very manageable, compared to giving birth. Im due my second baby in December and Im still not ready to go through all that again but I know its coming whether I want to or not. Your nurses will always be there to help you and dont be afraid to tell them your and pain and want medication. (: I would go crazy if my nurses were crouchy and mean, thank god they are nice. GOOD LUCK !!!!!

My doctor told me the same thing - that it is better to tear naturally than get an episiotomy. However, with my daughter's birth, she was in distress and he ended up having to cut me to get her out more quickly. That being said, I ended up having almost no pain afterwards (and I am kind of a wuss, so I don't know if I just lucked out or he did it really well or what). I didn't need any meds - I was ok with just the tucks pads and ice packs.

I did have an epidural and felt no pain during the actual birth and I was able to feel when it was time to push too. I hope my next one goes that well!

The one thing I wish I had been able to do is the perineum massage (you massage it every day for a few weeks before you give birth). Since I gave birth at 35 weeks, I had only started doing it about 3 days before and it wasn't much help, lol!

Good luck!

I kinda like the idea of a walking epidural...I have heard that the pushing/birth goes much better the more you can feel what's going on. I will make sure I tell them NO episiotomy! I have heard from other mother's that's the worst! Thank you ladies, this really helped me a lot!

Unfortunately, if you have an epidural, you're only allowed to lay on your back during labor/pushing, and laying on your back during delivery is strongly correlated with vaginal tearing. IF you are able to go sans-epidural, you will be less likely to tear, and using alternative pushing positions like squatting, kneeling and all fours will also dramatically reduce the likelihood of tearing. It's a hard choice to make! Epidural and a likely tear? Or No epidural and no tearing? It's sucky however you look at it. Just don't let them cut you, tears are much better then cuts. this little bloggy post i came across has some good points for choosing a natural tear over a cut: http://blogs.babble.com/being-pregnant/2012/08/28/the-husbands-stitch-unnecessary-episiotomies-and-the-women-who-hate-them/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10151363275617678_27727979_10151365913242678#f2762932544729e

I had a walking Epidural. It took a little more then the edge off, so I wasn't hurting much at all. When you're in labor ask the nurses (or put in birth plan) about prenerial massage. Thats what I had them do with my daughter and I barely teared at all. My hospital provides a bottle to put warm water in to clean, antibiotic spray, witch hazel pads for cooling pain relief, pads, and 2 ice packs. I made sure to put the massage in my birth plan. 3 wks
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Thanks knicole...I thought the aftermath of the birth would be worse than giving birth. I have it in my head the epidural is going to keep me from feeling much pain...maybe I'm wrong on that?!

I had a second degree tear. The hospital kept ice packs on it for the first 24 hrs because I was also swollen quite a bit. You have to dab dry when going to the bathroom but to be honest what was more uncomfortable when going to the bathroom was burning from the catheter I had. The pain is manageable when you compare it to the child birth you just went through ;). But the nurses in the hospital gave me Motrin to take for it even though I was offered Vicodin I did not feel comfortable taking it since I would be pumping and giving him my breast milk.